Effects Of Violence And Disease On The Kenyan Economy - Research Paper Example

? Effects of Violence and Disease on the Kenyan Economy Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. Disease and the Kenyan Economy 3 III. Violence and the Kenyan Economy 6 IV. Conclusion 7 Works Cited 9 I. Introduction This paper discusses the impact of violence and disease on the Kenyan economy. Kenya's population is estimated to reach 43.01 million in July of 2012, with all but 2.7 percent of it being under the age of 64. The median age is just 18.9 years. Per capita GDP is US 1,700, ranked 195th in the world, with three-fourths of the population engaged in agriculture. 50 percent of the population live in poverty. The literacy rate is 85.1 percent, but the country ranks 155th out of 177 nations in terms of the Human Development Index or HDI. Kenya belongs to the 30 poorest nations on earth (Central Intelligence Agency; UNICEF). II. Disease and the Kenyan Economy The extent to which disease in Kenya ravages the Kenyan economy is indicated by the fact that the Kenyan economy, on its own, seemingly cannot shoulder the total burden associated with caring for its own sick, as evidenced by its increased dependence on aid from foreign countries for that purpose, even as one notes that the extent of Kenya's dependence on aid for its health care needs is not as large as it is in comparison to other countries. Where other countries within sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, source anywhere from 30 percent to 40 percent of their health care needs from outside donors, Kenya's extent of need was 14.8 percent of its total funding coming from outside donors in 2006. That said, this figure is a marked increase from levels of aid as a proportion of Kenya's total health care budget in 1995, which was pegged at just 4.9 percent. From this perspective, the dependence of Kenya on foreign aid to care for its citizens has grown by a relatively wide margin, by a factor of three from 1995 levels to 2006 levels (Center for Strategic & International Studies). The overall picture as far as health and disease in Kenya from the late 1980's onwards is one where the gains in health and longevity achieved prior to this period were wiped out by a host of pressing problems that had the effect of Kenya's health and longevity indicators going on reverse, while the country had to face a growing list of persistent and chronic health crises that crippled the country's ability to adequately address all of these health problems and grow the economy. It is a chicken and egg affair. As more Kenyans meet with devastating health afflictions, such as tuberculosis malaria, and AIDS, the greater their burden on the nation's coffers, which in turn caused the country to suffer reversals versus its economic goals. Moreover, the impaired health and longevity of its citizens translated to a less capable workforce, which also had the effect of stunting overall economic growth. Indeed, at present, about half of the Kenyan population lives in poverty, while the longevity rates have gone down from a peak of 62 years in the late 1980's to just 53 years twenty years hence (Center for Strategic & International Studies). Data from UNICEF largely corroborate the steep plunge in expected longevity rates for the country, dropping to just 44 years according to UNICEF largely due to the outbreak and chronically high levels of the incidence of AIDS/HIV in the country (UNICEF). The numbers relating to the incidence of crippling diseases, including malaria, AIDS, other infectious illnesses, and tuberculosis, have remained at chronic high levels since that time. To add to this, recent trends are that the country is facing an epidemic of other chronic ailments, including heart disease, diabetes, and different kinds of cancers, further adding to the national burden, increasing the financial requirements to meet health care needs, and further stressing the national economy. The health care burden is huge relative to the capacity of the Kenyan national government's ability to meet it financially, and is the starting point of a vicious circle that threatens to keep the Kenyan economy crippled and hobbling for the foreseeable future (Center for Strategic & International Studies). Moreover, CIA figures paint a similarly negative picture. Kenya is 9th in terms of percentage of GDP allocation to health care, at 12.2 percent as of 2009. It had just 0.14 doctors for every 1,000 Kenyans, putting Kenya at the 159th rank among all countries in the world. It had 1.4 hospital beds for every 1,000 Kenyans, putting the country at the 125th rank. It is ranked 11th in the world in terms of prevalence of AIDS, with 6.3 percent of the population having AIDS, and number four in terms of number of people living with AIDS in the world, with 1.5 million Kenyans having AIDS in 2009. 69 percent of the population had poor access to sanitation facilities in 2008, and 41 percent had no adequate source of drinking water in 2008. Risks for infectious diseases such as malaria, hepatitis, and typhoid are considered high, as it is for rabies (Central Intelligence Agency) The adverse economic impact of AIDS on the Kenyan economy is well-documented, and is important, given the endemic nature of the disease,and given that a large portion of the Kenyan workforce is in agriculture, which relies on human labor as capital. From a personal perspective, in agriculture the person's primary capital is his labor, and AIDS severely hampers the ability of agricultural workers to earn a living. The range of loss of income attributed to AIDS alone is anywhere from 66 percent to more than 167 percent of the income of a household, depending on the number of household members afflicted with AIDS,and whether a breadwinner is afflicted or not. These figures add up to severely hamper the general Kenyan economy in the long term (Bollinger et al. 1-7). Moreover, with Kenya expected to face greater burdens owing to the rise of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, the economic burdens already well documented in other countries are expected to increase for Kenya, further pulling down Kenya's economy (Suhrcke et al. 8). Taking a step back, though, and from the perspective of how other neighboring countries are faring, Kenya is relatively better off than its neighbors in terms of aid requirements to fund its health care needs. By way of reference, moreover, Kenya allocated 4.9 percent of its GDP as expenditure for health care, with per capita health care allocation pegged at 29 US dollars per year (Center for Strategic & International Studies). The bigger picture is that of a poor Kenyan economy, one of the poorest in the world, whose efforts at economic growth are continually hampered by the many and profound health problems its citizens face year in and year out (UNICEF; Center for Strategic & International Studies; Central Intelligence Agency; Bollinger et al.; Suhrcke et al.) III. Violence and the Kenyan Economy Violence disrupts the stability of Kenya, depletes its already decimated workforce, and as such causes severe economic disruption, where a sound economy requires peace and some measure of stability, and an ample supply of workers. Violence strikes at the core of what it means to live peacefully and in a prosperous manner and wilts its fruit and tree. Data from the UNICEF for instance, details violence in terms of enslaving children and making them part of the slave and sex trades, with some estimates putting the number of child victims at 30,000 (UNICEF). This is just the tip of the iceberg, with violence among ethnic groups being another facet of the violence in Kenya. The inter-ethnic strife in Kenya is said to have deep historical roots, extending from the time of the country's founding, and even way before that. There is an argument to be made therefore for the role that such persistent inter-ethnic violence has played in the way the Kenyan economy has developed through the years. There is the element, for instance, of that aspect of ethnic violence that is due to numerous disputes over land and the distribution of power and wealth, stemming from disputes that first arose during the time of the colonial masters, and taking deeper root from the time of independence in 1963 moving forward. The Rift Valley and Nairobi slums have been targeted as the areas with the most profound violence in the country, even as violence is not isolated in that region, but spread over along ethnic lines. The Kikuyu tribe, making up about 20 percent of the population, and politically and economically influential, has had clashes with competing ethnic groups such as the Luo, among the most prominent of which is the violence that erupted in 2008, tied to the elections. It is hard to quantify the economic impacts of such violence, and the number of casualties seem to pale in comparison to the dead in such places as Rwanda, but the consensus is that violence in some form or other has had some impact on the development of the Kenyan economy through the years (Quist-Arcton; Baldauf; Gettleman). IV. Conclusion The effects of violence and disease on the Kenyan economy are profound, negative, and not fully quantifiable. The effects of disease and poor health on the economy, in particular, are dire, pervasive, and chronic, affecting longevity and workforce numbers and quality, and affecting the ability of the Kenyan economy to fund growth and other drivers of long-term economic wellness, such as education, and threatening to pull the country into a vicious cycle where the continued deterioration of the health of the Kenyan population translates to poorer and poorer economic outcomes (Quist-Arcton; Baldauf; Gettleman; UNICEF; Center for Strategic & International Studies; Central Intelligence Agency; Bollinger et al.; Suhrcke et al.) Works Cited Baldauf, Scott. “Ethnic violence: Why Kenya is not another Rwanda”. The Christian Science Monitor. 3 January 2008. 9 April 2012. Bollinger, Lori et al. “The Economic Impact of AIDS in Kenya”. USAID/The Futures Group International/CEDPA/RTI. September 1999. 9 April 2012. Center for Strategic & International Studies. “Kenya: The Big Picture on Health”. Smart Global Health.org. 2012. 9 April 2012. Central Intelligence Agency. “Kenya”. The World Factbook. 2012. 9 April 2012. Gettleman, Jeffrey. “Ethnic violence spreads in Kenya, with no sign of respite”. The New York Times. 27 January 2008. 9 April 2012. Quist-Arcton, Ofeibea. “Tracing the Roots of Ethnic Violence in Kenya”. National Public Radio. 31 January 2008. 9 April 2012. Suhrcke, Mark. “Chronic Disease: An Economic Perspective”. The Oxford Health Alliance. 2006. 9 April 2012. UNICEF. “Kenya at a glance”. UNICEF.org. 2012. 9 April 2012. Read More